An Irish company formed last year with funding of just more than $3 million (#3.24 million) has launched a device aimed at making the Internet accessible to a wider market. It will appeal to parents wishing to censor the information their children can access online.
Netnote's new Webnote product allows Internet and e-mail access, but is not based on traditional PC technology. It operates off a smart card, similar to the SIM cards used in mobile phones. These cards can be configured to restrict or extend the areas a user can access online.
The user buys or rents the device from an agent, and plugs in the smart card detailing personal web access information. The device then connects to a power point, and a standard phone line to establish an automatic connection to the Internet and e-mail.
According to Mr Brendan Farrell, chief executive officer of Netnote, the Webnote was developed as a way to divorce the Internet from the PC. "Most people would like to connect to the Internet but are intimidated by computers. Then we came up with the smart card option. It's as simple to operate as a telephone, and the colour touchscreen means the user doesn't need to have experience using a mouse."
Mr Farrell, managing director of Allies Design Group, and Mr Pat O'Donnell, a former outsourcer for Apple in Cork, designed the end product, which it plans to market to the international community. Netnote will outsource the manufacture of the small hand-held device to Dovatron in Cork, a former Apple outsourcer. Netnote raised $3.1 million last year from both private investors and public funding from AIB.
The initial run of 500 Webnotes will be used primarily for marketing purposes as Netnote pitches the product through its New York, Dallas and Irish offices. The product will only become available to the home user later this summer, and is expected to retail from around £299. It will also be available for rental through telecommunications operators for around £20 to £25 per month.
Mr Farrell believes the Webnote range has a number of applications which pitch the product at the leading end of non-PC based Internet access devices. It can be used to reduce the high cost of technology ownership for companies with large numbers of mobile workers.
"It can be configured as a task specific device to simply connect the employee with the office database, or only those companies it has to transact business with."
Netnote says it has already closed a number of commercial deals in the Republic and Viking Capital in the US has signed up to sell the product to the banking and insurance industries. Mr Farrell believes the market for non-PC based Internet devices is estimated to be worth just under $500 million.
